by Kiel Nichols
When she was done, Gideon shifted her onto her side, moved behind her and slid into her wet, swollen body.
Gideon felt no urgency to get off. The sheets were pushed to the bottom and the couple lay spooned. Gideon draped Raina’s leg over his thigh and lightly pinched her nipple while he rocked slowly inside her. There was a sense of sweetness in the joining.
Gideon felt the familiar tightening in his balls that indicated that he was going to need to pick up the pace. He skimmed his hand down to touch between her legs. He found the nub and rubbed lightly.
Raina groaned and her body responded by squeezing him. Gideon suddenly slid his arm under her leg to lift it higher and change the angle of his thrusts, throwing them both over the edge of completion in moments.
Gideon lowered her leg, but remained buried deep within her, making them both sigh. Their habit of early morning lovemaking was established at the beginning of their relationship. In the last week or so, though, Raina hadn’t felt up to it.
Gideon was starting to get truly concerned for her health.
“Take a nap today if you need it,” Gideon said as he nuzzled her neck.
“Mm-hmm. I will. Is Joanie working out all right as an investigator?”
“She’s working out terrific. I think she’s getting her license. I bet she’s going to push for partner status, and right now, I’m inclined to give it to her.” Gideon gently withdrew and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
“Are you sure you’re feeling OK this morning?” he asked as he headed toward the shower.
“I’m better. I must have just needed some rest. I didn’t want to go to the doctor because I don’t know how much of it is related to trying to use my new powers. Days like today, I wondered why I ever thought I should.”
“I’m glad you feel better.” The band of worry that had been tightening around Gideon’s chest loosened.
He wasn’t surprised to find that Raina wasn’t in the bedroom when he came out. When she felt up to it, she liked to make him breakfast before sending him off to work. He told her she didn’t need to, but she said she liked to.
He was surprised, however, to find that she made enough breakfast to feed an army. Although there was only enough bacon and eggs for the two, she defrosted a huge batch of muffins in the oven. He took a huge plate and so did she. “What’s with all this food?”
“Eric’s stopping by this morning, and so is Bryce. Eric’s shop is closed today, so he said he’d bring some books over and do research here. I figure that if he and Bryce run into each other, I’ll just tell Bryce that Eric is a visiting scholar doing research.” Raina spoke between bites of eggs.
Gideon laughed. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. Sounds like a full house this morning. What time does Kristano get here?”
“Actually, as soon as you leave, I come back in, and he’s in the house. So I don’t know, but I assume he can sense where we are and knows when you leave.”
Gideon frowned. He didn’t mind that Kristano knew where they were, but there were times when he wondered just how much privacy they all had in this situation. It wouldn’t be a big deal, except that he wanted to have a serious talk with Raina about their future, and he didn’t want an audience. He felt awkward enough as it was.
“Well, I better get going,” Gideon finished his coffee and put his plate in the dishwasher. He never wanted her to think she had to wait on him.
Raina walked him to the door. She shut off the alarm and leaned on the doorjamb as he started walking toward his car. He paused when a silver BMW pulled up in front of the house. Gideon looked back at Raina, who stood in the doorway. She shrugged. He was surprised to see Eric emerging from the car.
Eric headed toward him.
“Nice ride. Witches do pretty well in this town,” Gideon commented. He knew it was nosey and a little rude, but he couldn’t resist.
“Hey, mom never spent any time with me, but she was big on toys for birthdays.” He gestured back to the car with his head. “I guess she figured that a thirty-year-old with a Beemer is less likely to own an occult shop. Didn’t work.”
They shook hands.
“Gotta get to work,” Gideon said and turned to wave one more time at Raina before getting in his car.
There was a light popping sound, somewhat like the displacement of air when a balloon breaks.
Raina’s shoulder jerked, and she fell back against the doorjamb. The huge patch of blood spreading across Raina’s chest was the only clue to what had happened.
It took only a split second for everyone to act. Gideon and Eric both turned to run up the driveway to Raina. Because of Gideon’s unresponsive muscles, Eric got there first. Kristano materialized right in front of Gideon, blocking the way.
“Gideon, the house across the street. He’s still got the gun!” He then dematerialized again, but not before Gideon saw the blood all over Kristano’s chest. Not even bothering to try to figure it out, Gideon whirled. He immediately saw the barrel of a rifle sticking out of a window of the house across the street.
Gideon didn’t stop to think about the fact that he was on a public street and could be seen. He didn’t consider whether there were other people in the house. He just threw his arms toward the house. Long streams of fire were hurled toward the house. As soon as the first stream hit, the nozzle of the gun disappeared from the window.
Gideon was in a rage like nothing he’d ever felt before. He thought about razing the neighborhood so that the shooter couldn’t escape.
Gideon, Kristano said, Raina needs you.
Gideon howled like a wolf. She’s not dead? Why can’t I feel her?
Eric is absorbing the pain. That must be blocking you. She needs an ambulance. He can take the pain on, but he can’t heal her. Kristano’s voice was as urgent as Gideon had ever heard it.
Gideon turned abruptly back up the drive, reached for his cell phone, and called 911. He rapidly gave the information about the shooting and the house fire to the operator and hung up, even though the operator told him to stay on the line.
He reached Raina and saw her lying still and pale on the porch. Eric had one hand on her forehead and the other over her belly. He was sweaty and pale.
Kristano was nowhere to be seen.
Kristano, are you there?
No response.
“It’s OK, baby,” Gideon said over and over. He put pressure on the wound to try to stop the bleeding. “It’s all right. The ambulance is on the way.”
“She’s going to be OK,” Eric gritted out. “It’s not that bad. I don’t think it hit anything serious. The baby’s fine, too.”
Gideon jerked his head. “She’s not pregnant. She can’t get pregnant.”
Eric was obviously absorbing all of Raina’s pain. He looked like he was going to pass out. “Put your hand over mine on her belly,” Eric instructed.
When Gideon hesitated, Eric shouted, “Do it!”
Gideon put his shaky hand on top of Eric’s. Their hands glowed then Gideon could feel the tiny life growing inside. He could feel the rapid heartbeat.
“How?” Gideon was stunned. He wanted to leave his hand there, but he became aware of the sound of sirens.
Eric gave a strained grin. “Magic, I guess.”
“The EMTs are here,” Gideon said. “I don’t want to let her go.”
“We’re both going to have to,” Eric said. “She’s unconscious anyhow. She shouldn’t feel anything.”
The EMTs ran up and nudged the men aside.
“What happened here?” the woman asked. Gideon realized it was the same one from the school shooting. He wondered if she remembered them.
“Someone shot her. He was across the street in the house, and he shot her.” Gideon knew enough to stay back out of the way, but Raina’s continued silence in his head was difficult to handle.
A uniformed police officer walked up just as Gideon said that. “She was shot by someone in the house that is currently on fire?”
“That�
��s the one.” Gideon turned his attention back to the EMTs. They had attached an IV and stabilized Raina to put her on a stretcher. “She’s pregnant.”
The EMT made a note on the chart. “We’ll let them know in Emergency, but our first priority is her life. The baby is secondary.”
Gideon felt the lump in his throat. “I understand.”
He followed the stretcher down the steep driveway toward the ambulance. “I’m riding with you.”
The EMT must have remembered him well, because she said, “You can ride, Gideon, but you have to stay out of the way.”
“Wait a minute,” the cop said. “I have some questions.”
“I’ll answer them,” Eric said, making Gideon suddenly grateful that he was there. “He needs to be with his fiancée.”
Gideon looked at Eric. “Thanks, man, for everything.”
He climbed into the ambulance and wondered what the hell had just happened. And where was Kristano?
Chapter 15
Gideon had been to the Saint Anne’s Hospital Emergency Room several times in his life. He remembered the waiting room to be crowded with sick, miserable people waiting their turn to be seen by the overworked ER staff. When he followed Raina’s stretcher off the ambulance, he was told to wait in a smaller waiting area. The only people in the room were an older woman and a man who looked like her adult son. The woman was crying softly, while the man held her. Every once and a while he’d murmur to her, “He’s strong, he’ll make it.”
When Gideon first came into the room, they looked up at him with hope, as though he might be the doctor come to give them news. They immediately took in his bloody clothes and tortured eyes and went back to their private vigil. Gideon sat on the cold vinyl seat and looked at the doorway, waiting for the doctor to give him news. About twenty minutes later, a doctor came down the hallway. He was rubbing his eyes. Gideon stood up abruptly. He knew he was looking at a doctor who was preparing to give bad news.
The other couple, alerted by Gideon’s change in posture, also stood up. The doctor stepped into the room.
“I’m looking for the family of Silas Miller.”
The woman stepped forward, eager, still hoping for good news.
“Mrs. Miller?” At her nod, the doctor led her to a seat. “I’m sorry. By the time they got him here, his heart was too damaged.”
Both Mrs. Miller and the younger man started to cry.
“Did he—did he suffer?” the man asked.
Gideon always wondered why someone would ask that question. Even if the person suffered, the doctor is going to lie. Besides, why would anyone want to know the truth?
“No, once he was unconscious, he slipped peacefully away. I’m sorry for your loss. I’ll have Nurse Maybee bring you some paperwork.” The doctor got up and headed for the door, not sparing Gideon a glance.
Gideon grabbed his arm. “Doctor, I know you didn’t work on her, but is there any way to find out the status of Raina Kallan?”
“Gunshot victim?”
“Yes. I don’t mean to be a pest.” Gideon knew that his calm tone would make it easier for the doctor to help him.
“I don’t know the status at this moment. I do know that she was stable when I passed by the trauma room a few minutes ago. I’ll see if there’s anyone available to update you.”
“Thank you.”
After the doctor walked away, Gideon watched the drama unfold in front of him. When he was in uniform, he worked for six months in the division that alerted families to accidents and deaths. It was the only time when he was on the force that he truly hated his job. He’d have taken boring traffic detail over notification duty anytime.
The nurse brought some paperwork and led the other couple out of the room. Gideon figured that they wanted to see the body.
A few minutes later, nearly an hour after she was brought in, a doctor came to give Gideon her status just as Eric came into the waiting room.
Gideon hugged Eric. The men had bonded over Raina’s blood.
Eric was followed closely by a young doctor. “Are you here for Raina Kallan?”
“Yes, I’m her fiancé, Gideon McConnell. This is Eric Bevan, a friend of ours.”
“Mr. McConnell, we’re taking Raina into surgery. The bullet is still lodged in her shoulder. The good news about that is that there was less risk of her bleeding out because there was no exit wound. The bad news is that we need to get it out and close up the damage. Our only concern is that she was shot on the left side, near her heart. I understand that no one else was hurt?”
“No, only Raina.”
“Was she standing behind something?”
Gideon looked at him quizzically, “No, why?”
“The report says that she was shot from under fifty yards away, yet the impact of the bullet indicates that it went through something, or someone, first. Frankly, this is the type of injury we see when the bullet impacts two victims with the same shot.”
Oh, shit. Kristano. “No, it just hit Raina. Maybe the gun was malfunctioning?”
The doctor just shrugged. “I don’t know anything about that. We’ll just leave it up to the police to figure out. I just needed to know if we should be looking for any kind of foreign objects in the wound.”
“No, nothing except that it went through her robe.”
The doctor nodded. “We’ve accounted for that. She’s stable now. We’re taking her up to the OR and fixing the damage. Like I said, the operation is a little more risky because of its location, but the actual surgery itself should not be difficult. It’ll take about four hours. After that she’ll be surgical ICU until we know she’s stable.”
“Doctor.” Gideon hesitated, not sure he wanted to hear the answer to the question. “Is the baby still alive?”
The doctor put his hand on Gideon’s. Gideon tensed, expecting the worst. “Right now, that baby is strong. We’ve got a fetal monitor on it. However, we will not change our treatment of Raina based on the baby. Whether it survives is up to God at this point. You should prepare yourself for the possibility that the fetus might not remain viable.”
“Do whatever you have to do to keep Raina alive, but don’t forget about that baby.” Gideon didn’t even know about the baby until a little over an hour before, but he already couldn’t imagine losing it.
“We’ll do everything we can. Mr. McConnell, why don’t you make yourselves comfortable in the surgical waiting area? You’ll have plenty of time to go to the cafeteria or even head home and change before she’s done in surgery.”
“Can I see her before she goes in?”
“If you’d like, you can walk with her from the ER up to the surgical unit. Just be prepared, she’s unconscious and hooked up to several machines,” the doctor warned.
“Eric, I’ll meet you in the waiting room.”
Eric nodded.
* * * *
The Surgical Waiting Room was empty. Eric didn’t know how it was possible for it to be empty, but it was.
Eric couldn’t stop himself from reliving the day. He was so excited when he got up. Sure, the path he was on was dangerous, but it was also thrilling. He was ready to jump into it—find the other keeper and change the world. How hard could it be?
How stupid he was.
He was ready to defend himself and the others magically, but he never considered that the danger would be a real and tangible thing. A gun, shot by an expert marksman.
The pain from the wound was incredible. It felt like his arm was going to fall off. He could take on her pain, but he couldn’t heal her. She could have died while he was there, holding the agony at bay. She could have slipped away, taking away his physical pain, and taking away the life that beat under his hand. Eric couldn’t bear the thought of Raina dying. Such a bright light in the world, extinguished.
Gideon came into the room a short time later, pale and tired. “I called my brother on the way in. Bryce would be furious if he found out that Raina was hurt and I didn’t call.” He gestured to his bl
oody shirt. “I asked him to bring me a shirt.”
Gideon looked at Eric’s spotless shirt. It was the same one he was wearing earlier, but the blood was gone. “How did you manage to wash your shirt?”
“I didn’t.” Eric ran a hand over his shirt and blood appeared. He passed his hand over again and it disappeared. “Ain’t magic grand?”
Kristano walked into the room.
“Where the hell have you been?” Eric got into Kristano’s face. He was suddenly furious. Here was this all-powerful being, and he ran like a frightened girl when the action started.
“Did you think that Raina or that baby might need you? Did you think that maybe you could have stuck around to help?” Eric was nearly yelling.
Kristano took it all stoically.
“Stop it!” Gideon said sharply to Eric. “He didn’t run away.”
“Are you OK? Did you get what you needed to close the wound?” Gideon looked at Kristano’s chest. It was back to normal. Again, there was no blood on the front of him.
“I’m fine. I tried to find Jensen, but I couldn’t. I don’t know if Adder’s control cloaks him from me, but he was long gone.”
“Wait a minute.” Eric wasn’t willing to let go of the previous conversation. “What are you talking about, Gideon? What wound?”
“Kristano took the bullet first, you moron. Why do you think her wound looks like a secondary hit?”
Eric didn’t know what to say. He was ashamed that he jumped to the conclusion that Kristano ran. He should have known better.
Why should you have known better? Kristano asked. You don’t know me.
Kristano’s acceptance made Eric feel worse.
“How did you heal so fast?” Eric hadn’t been exposed to Kristano’s way of survival.
“I used magic to heal it, and then strengthened myself with blood.”
Eric got the sense that Kristano was trying to shock him. He refused to fall into it again.
Eric held out his hand. “Sorry, man. It just made me a little crazy to see Raina bleeding like that.”
“I checked on her before I came in. They just started, but things are still looking good.” Kristano touched Gideon’s arm.
